Stephen King introduces each of these short stories with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it. There are connections between stories -- themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. "Afterlife" is about a man who died of colon cancer and keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their crimes and misdemeanors. Others address what happens when someone discovers that he has supernatural powers -- the columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries in "Obits;" the old judge in "The Dune" who, as a boy, canoed to a deserted island and saw names written in the sand, the names of people who then died in freak accidents. In "Morality," King looks at how a marriage and two lives fall apart after the wife and husband enter into what seems, at first, a devil's pact they can win. "I made them especially for you," says King. "Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth."
I got this collection almost two years ago, so I thought it was time to get it read. Over the years I've really enjoyed most of Stephen King's short story collections and this one was no exception. There wasn't really a bad one in the book, but there were a few that were weaker than the others, which is why I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5. Quite a few of them had an interesting twist and most of them were not predictable, which is something I've always liked when reading King's books. It's hard to pick out a favourite, but 'Bad Little Kid', 'Ur', and 'Blockade Billy' are ones that stuck out for me. One thing I really liked was the little introductions to each story, especially the one where King talked about the little old lady who was convinced that he hadn't written 'The Shawshank Redemption.' It was a good collection to dip in and out of, but I'd have to say that his 'Skeleton Crew' is still probably my favourite collection.
